


i know that you will catch me before i hit the ground

by ashleygail



Category: IT (2017)
Genre: Child Abuse (mentioned), Homophobia, Multi, Sexual Abuse (mentioned), Sonia Kapsbrak's A+ Parenting, this is soft I promise
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-30
Updated: 2018-04-30
Packaged: 2019-04-30 00:08:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,750
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14484246
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ashleygail/pseuds/ashleygail
Summary: #wentworth and maggie tozier love the fuck out of their son and are good parents, y'all are just mean.





	i know that you will catch me before i hit the ground

Richie’s parents had never fully declared an open door policy in their home, Richie hadn’t never asked about it. When they were younger and the group was smaller, they always went to the Denbroughs if the urge came upon them to hang out inside. Sure, maybe, the Toziers was bigger and had more expensive things but the Denbroughs had a baby Georgie which Richie just couldn’t compete with.

Of course, things changed after Georgie disappeared. It wasn’t properly discussed, but it became apparent that there a had been cold shift in the Denbrough house. The distance between the Denbrough parents and their remaining son, a constant holding of him at an arms length. 

The actually movement from hanging out at Billy’s to hanging out Richie’s didn’t happen immediately by any means, they had allowances now and could do things besides sitting outside all the time. Arcades, movies, the works. 

If sometimes Bill would spend hours sitting in Richie’s room with him after every body had gone back home, nobody questioned it. Maggie would always welcome Bill to stay for dinner and give him extra dessert.

* * *

Bill became a pretty normal presence at the Tozier’s dinner at least two or three times a week and Richie really started giving thought to how nice to was to have his friends around the house. Richie had never really considered the concept of being lonely, because he was never really alone. He spent his free time with his friends, and his parents were more than happy to let Richie come sit with them on the couch in the evenings if he wanted to. Most of the time, he didn’t want to. Richie didn’t mind spending nights alone in his room, unless he was really feeling his ADHD that night. 

But having Bill around during dinner and even past dark was nice. Richie had never had the urge for a sibling, in truth, he liked not having to share his parents love and attention but the feeling of being a like a brother to Bill Denbrough when he needed one was a rush to the heart that Richie enjoyed.

\---

Stanley showed up on Richie’s doorstep one night when they were eleven, cuddling up in a large jacket and flushed cheeks. Richie blinked at him, and stepped aside surprisingly wordlessly. Before Richie could even ask what he was doing there, Stan launched quickly into an angrier and longer rant than Richie had ever heard from his best friend. The boy just going off about his father and all the stupid pressure his father was putting on him about his studies and his bar mitzvah. Richie wasn’t sure what he should say, so for once, he just stood in silence and let his friend complain with angry tears streaming down his cheeks. 

When Wentworth came into the front foyer, he took one look at the flushed and frazzled Stanley Uris and took them both into the kitchen. He sat the boys down at the table and made them all tea, even as Richie curled his nose up at it. He talked to Stan in a soft, clear voice. He talked about fathers, about how it almost seemed like a curse that they would never be able to fully understand their sons, that they would put too much pressure on them and that it was because they wanted them to succeed. 

Richie looked up and his dad and they exchanged soft smiles. 

It, too, became a tradition after that. Stan coming to the Toziers every time things got just a little too intense with his dad. It was always the same every time, Stan coming over flushed and angry and letting Wentworth and Maggie calm him down. Making sure Stan knew that, yes, his father loved him even if he was making things hard for him right now. That parents made mistakes, too, sometimes. Stan wasn’t one who was good at stomaching mistakes, which made Richie sort of marvel sometimes at how Stan was even friends with him. 

\---

The only person Richie had ever felt the need to sneak into his house was Beverly Marsh. Richie felt nothing romantic towards the girl at all, never really had, but he still wasn’t sure his parents would be as welcoming to her camping out on his bedroom floor as they were with Billy or Stan. 

The thing with Richie and Beverly was, of course, that they were terrible at being sneaky and were caught out after the second attempt to sneak her after dark. Richie got the third degree- and what felt like the fourth or the fifth- from his parents before he finally broke down and told them everything Beverly had to struggle with at home and her dad. 

He’d never seen his father look scarier as he did as he left the house that night, swearing the he would never let Beverly step foot in that environment ever again. Maggie and Richie put together their guest room perfectly for her, and Beverly began the sibling that Richie had always believed he didn’t want but maybe had wanted all along. 

\---

Ben’s introduction to spending hours and hours at time at Tozier’s house originated from spending time with Beverly but it seemed almost like Wentworth and Maggie had ingrained radar built into them to  _know_ when a kid was coming from a troubled house at this point. They were the Losers Club, after all, it only made sense that they had struggles. 

Maggie noticed the way Ben’s hand always went to brush over his mouth when he was offered food, how he wore sweaters no matter the temperature. She knew that Richie and Bev blew her off when she asked about it, would have expected nothing less from the her kids that believed their parents didn’t know they smoke weed out Richie’s window and kept smoke stashes under Beverly’s bed. They prided themselves on the secrets they  _thought_ they were good at keeping. 

She kept her meddling with the sweet boy more subtle than she did with Bill or Stanley. Small reassuring comments or causal compliments towards Ben that would make the boy blush and her kids exchange small smiles. 

\---

Even families that are close and full of love have their own problems, and Mike Hanlon even had his share of sleeping on Richie’s bedroom floor. The fights between Mike and his parents never compared to that which the others went through, but Richie could understand that sometimes you just needed space.

Richie and Mike always went to each other for that, parental issues wise. They both knew that they’d gotten fucking lucky in that department, but if Mike ever started feeling over worked he’d go sleepover at Tozier’s and take some time to himself. It was the same as if Richie ever felt too much like his parents didn’t understand him and made him feel like he didn’t belong, he’d go smoke weed and feed the chickens at the Hanlon farm. 

Mike was probably the favourite friend of Maggie and Wentworth because he was the most helpful without question. 

\---

The Tozier open door policy only had restrictions for one Eddie Kaspbrak. He had probably been using the open door policy before it was even a consideration, a thought in the back of anybody’s heads. Eddie had been going to seek comfort in Maggie and Wentworth (and defintely not Richie, of fucking course not, that’s just stupid.) whenever his mother was Just Too Much.

Of course, once Eddie and Richie got their shit together and became a couple, the Toziers needed to implace rules because being Richie’s parents had always come first. It never banned Eddie from the house, no- the door open policy mostly just became literally. Eddie and Richie had been in rooms with open doors, where they could be monitored. Absoultely no sleeping in the same bed, or even in the same room. (Once Beverly was moved in, Eddie would be know to move from the couch in living room to her bed. Richie never missed an opportunity to raise his voice about how unfair a double standard that was. He was always ignored, of course.)

Those rules, too, were thrown aside the night Eddie showed up on their porch with tears burning his eyes and a bright red hand mark on his cheek. There had been many minutes of coxing before Eddie spit out the truth that he’d finally gotten up the courage to come out to his mother and, in her denial fueled rage, she’d hit him. 

Richie may have gotten the chance to his father’s look of pure rage for the second time in his life, if he hadn’t had his face buired into boyfriend’s hair as they shook with sobs. That night, Wentworth Tozier swore for the second time that he would never let a child enter the home of their parents ever again. Soft conversation between Maggie and Wentworth had made it that they would renovate the basement for Eddie to have as his space before all three left for college the following year. 

One look at the boys clutching to each other like life lines, and they knew there would never be a question of separating them that night. And they were fine with that. 

\---

The day Richie and Eddie packed up for California, everybody was there. They were the first Losers to leave, and it was big scary event for everybody. Richie made the first move towards his parents, wrapping an arm around his mother and handing the box to his father. 

Nestling inside were two matching gold rings, one smaller than the other in width, with the words “mom and dad” engraved on them. Maggie teared up instantly and moved to bury herself in her son. 

“We all pitched in for them,” Richie said, giving his dad a small smile. “They’re not like, real gold or any of that shit because we’re broke college students that were broke high school students like a month ago but-”

“We wanted you to know that we appreciate everything you’ve done for us over the years,” Bev jumped, letting her arm go around Richie’s waist. “Especially me but-”

“No-no,” Bill smiled from where he sat on the front lawn. “I pretty much lived here as-as much as y-you did, Bev. And long-longer.” 

Wentworth spoke to the group but only had eyes for his son. “The door is always open if you ever want come home.” 

Richie smiled sadly and gave a small nod. 


End file.
